


Campfire

by hito_ritabi



Category: Original Work
Genre: Adventure, Camp Nanowrimo, Magic, NaNoWriMo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-06-03 18:24:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 10,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19469596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hito_ritabi/pseuds/hito_ritabi
Summary: No one, me included, knows where this story shall go!





	1. Waste and Night 1

Touya felt weak. He was tired from fighting monsters all day. He, with Basil's assistance, had managed to clear a pile of large boulders that were blocking the road to the east. They were headed that way anyway to explore some ruins that had been recently unearthed from an earthquake, when upon arriving at this particular spot on the road they came across the landslide. Several tradesman had already been at work since dawn by the time the two explorers arrived.

Touya had stated to Basil that they could just easily climb over the pile of rocks and boulders and continue on their way, but Basil had made the persuasive argument that if they did that they'd look like unkind adventurers, which he reminded Touya: They were not this.

With an audible grumble to voice his protest, Touya climbed to the top of the boulders and began handing down smaller and lighter ones to Basil. The two worked in effortless tandem like this for an hour while the others were working along the edges, trying to ease the boulders just off the road so at least one ox-drawn cart could fit.

It wasn't long before someone mentioned in their casual conversations that there had been wolves in the night that had harassed the workers. This easily piqued Touya's interest. He popped his head up from the pile of boulders he was lost in, and asked “What was that? Wolves?” Before Basil could shout at him, Touya had hopped up and slid down the rocks, with some falling in his wake as he took uneasy quick steps down the incline.


	2. Waste and Night 2

“Uh, the ones over the ridge in the forest.” the woman answered as Touya landed in front of her, rubble strewing around them.

“Big ones? A lot?” Touya asked excitedly.

“Touya, no!” Basil ordered as he stumbled down the rocks much less gracefully. “We can't just go around killing every bit of wildlife that poses a threat once in a while.”

“Why not?” Touya asked with a rather composed tone of voice as he watched Basil trip. He opened his arms and caught his companion, then held his weight until Basil was able to get his feet underneath himself.

“Because.” Basil coughed. “Her Ladyship has expressly forbidden you to do any needless killing. Not even a wolf on a farm would count.”

“But it's attacking the traders!” Touya pointed out.

“They came after our chickens last night.” the woman nodded. She crossed her arms underneath her breasts as one hand pressed to her cheek as she sighed. “It was a real pain to frighten them off with just our torches.”

“Oooh, what if,” Touya turned to Basil, “we wait until nightfall when they circle again and then clean their clocks?”

Basil shook his head. “You'd be better off being productive, like making a barrier.”

Touya scoffed. “That's no fun.”

The woman's eyes went wide as she looked between the two. Basil's blond hair in his pony tail appeared messy, but his gleaming orange eyes stuck out to her as if his head itself were a pumpkin. As she studied Touya, she noticed what she had thought was brown hair was actually a shade more akin to a purple grape, with his right eye being a vivid royal purple and his left eye the color of a lush grassy plain. “You're Her Majesty's entourage?”

Touya looked at her with a blank face, then gave her a toothy grin. “Nah, more like, her babysitters.”

“Is she nearby?” a man asked, coming over.

Within minutes the two were surrounded by the tradesmen hounding them with questions about how the young Queen was, where she was, and if she knew about the landslide here.

Basil clapped his hands together to make a few loud bursts of sound which made the pestering group fall silent. “Her Majesty sent us to check on the ruins, not to deal with this landslide. The people who are better suited to that will be arriving shortly. We have to leave, now, Touya.”

The young man frowned at the blond, but he did not reluctantly. “We'll set up a barrier to protect you from the wolves tonight. The workers should arrive tomorrow.”

Before the crowd could pester them more, the two scampered up over the boulders and used them as a bridge to climb up onto the grassy ridge above. Touya grabbed some loose plants and roots to use as a rope to pull his weight up. Once he was on stable mossy ground above, he turned around, reached down and helped get Basil up the last few feet.

“Whew.” Touya huffed then chuckled. “I forgot how crazy people can be about her.”

“It's cause you had to bring her up.”

“No, I didn't. You did.” Touya waved his arms wide as Basil stepped around him into the dark of the trees. “You had to go and mention about the barrier magic and that got us caught!”

“They would've never seen through our magic if you hadn't interrupted their conversation about the wolves.” Basil lectured as Touya followed him a few paces behind.

“Give me a break. It's boring hiding in plain sight.”

Basil stopped suddenly, which caused Touya to bump into him. As the blond whipped around to lecture him, Touya took four immediate steps back. With his lecturing hand, Basil swung a strong gust of air that almost cut Touya's chin.


	3. Waste and Night 3

“Whoa! Don't just swing your powers around!” Touya shouted indignantly as Basil drew his arm back to his body. He watched warily as the blond twiddled his fingers playfully, small wisps of wind fluttering around him enough to make the foliage of thick leaves move on either side of him. “Fine. I apologize. Happy now?”

“Somewhat.” Basil replied flatly, dropping his arm to his side. Immediately the little winds around him subsided. Only small leaves moved about them as the gentle summer breeze swept past them and into the woods, lead up by the ridge they had just climbed. “Can you build the barrier from here?”

Touya turned around to look back at the traders down below. They were far enough down that they couldn't hear the two talking, and instead had gotten back to work moving the large pieces of rubble. He could make out on either side of the pile, tall enough that two carts stacked ontop of each other still were dwarfed by it, that tradesmen from both the north-east and the eastern sides of the paths were working together to clear it. Both parties looked tired, as there was hardly enough people to trade off realistic shifts without someone being blamed for not pulling their weight.

“Can you?” Basil asked again as he stepped up beside Touya to look over the path. “Oh, wow.” He shivered, hugging his arms close to his core, pulling his jacket tighter around his shoulders. “I didn't realize we were so high.” Touya chuckled lightly.

While they had indeed climbed up just now a fair distance, the path itself was on a small rounded mountain that left the path even with the tops of forty-foot trees to the other side of it. Suddenly the breeze blowing about them didn't seem so out of place. Touya thought for a second that if he wasn't certain Basil specialized in wind magic, then that breeze that had almost cut his chin had been part of nature.

“Yeah.” Touya nodded. “There's a fair amount of nature around here, it shouldn't take too much effort to erect a suitable barrier from wolves.”

“Assuming that's all it is that attacked them in the night.”

“Let's assume that it is, and just make it a tad stronger.” Touya smiled at the blond.

Basil started rummaging through the small leather pack on his hip. “I'm sure we still have an eclair left you can use.”

“Let's save it.” Touya put his hands on his hips as he watched Basil dig around the bag. “Do you have any of the butterscotch left?” Without warning, Basil snapped his head up with a glare so fierce that Touya had to cough. It took him a second to realize that the blond had struck his stomach with a blast of wind in that instant.

“You ate it all yesterday.” Basil said in an irritated tone.

“I was hungry.” Touya rubbed his stomach. “Oh. Wait a minute!” He snapped at the other young man. “You gave it to me so I could get that donkey cart across the river with the broken bridge!”

“It was a horse.”

“Donkey!”

“Horse. And I only gave you one piece, not all five.”

Touya looked up and around himself at the plants as he tried to recall if he had indeed consumed one piece of butterscotch, or five. “It was pretty easy to do.”

“Cause you probably ate five!” Basil's voice cracked as he yelled at him.

“...Fine. Is there anything else small I can use?”

“For the barrier?”

“No, for a fifty-foot jump off this mountain. Yes, for the barrier, you twit.” Touya hit a branch out of irritation. If he hit Basil, he'd be knocked onto his butt without warning from a tornado shooting out of the blond out of defensive measures. Not as if he'd done it before, of course.

Not lately.


	4. Waste and Night 4

“Ah!” Basil chirped happily. “There's half of that pineapple bun left.”

“Ew. No. That's from two days ago.”

“Well it's perfect for a barrier construct.”

Touya looked at Basil slowly, then painted a grimace onto his face. “You're not serious.” Basil, while glaring at him firmly, lifted his hand up to the other– the pastry held in his palm for the one protesting to take it. Neither one moved for a few seconds as Touya hoped he could wait him out. Usually that'd work, and Basil would find something more appealing – like a slice of bread in the shape of a pocket with cheese and salted-dried pork inside. Instead this time, the blond held his arm up firmly. Touya waited a few more seconds.

“Hey. My arm's getting tired.” Basil complained as he stood up, pushing the pineapple bun toward Touya.

Touya made sure his face appeared more disgusted as he picked up the small bun. It was a small round innocent piece of fried dough, several days old, that smelled of pineapple. He could even make out the pieces of sliced pineapple lovingly mixed into the dough. He shut both his eyes, took a deep whiff of it's pleasant smell, and then tossed it into his open mouth. Two chews later, he coughed, and then finished chewing it. After swallowing, he opened his eyes to look at Basil, who had crossed his arms in front of his chest and was giving him a very irritated look of disapproval.

It made Touya chuckle his response. “You're right. It wasn't that bad. Fresh is better.”

“We don't have fresh.”

“I know, I know.” Touya waved his hand up in defeat before turning to face the ridge where the boulders were. “Hmm, how long do you think it should last for?”

“More than a day at least. The workers might not arrive tomorrow.” Basil said in a kinder tone.

“All righty.” Touya clapped his hands together and shut his eyes.

All of the muscles in his body went tense as he focused. He drew his right foot back to be inline but behind his left foot, not too close that his toes were touching his heel, but close enough. He slowly waved his arms out as if he were using them as the only thing to balance himself, keeping his elbows at the same height as his shoulders. Slowly, he eased his palms out farther from his body, with one palm open and down toward the ground and the other mirrored, but facing to the sky.

Basil took a few quiet steps back as a spark of electricity went around Touya's form from the tips of his hair, around his woolen clothes, and down to his leather boots.

Touya clearly spoke the incantation, but said it softly so no one besides Basil could hear it. “Borrowing from the Queen, nature assist me, build an impenetrable wall that those seeking to harm these traders cannot break, fifty-two hours then be waste.” His eyes jolted open, the purple eye glowing far more brightly than his green one, until it looked like electricity itself were shooting out of it in the shape of a contained flame. “Construct: Wall, Level One!”

Out from his purple eye the electricity in the same grape color shot forth along his arms to his fingertips and then shot both down into ground, and up into the air. The electricity on the ground zigged and zagged until it shot down the ridge and, within ten seconds, made a giant misshapen circle around the boulders and the tradesman on either side moving them. The bolt that went into the sky burst forth to the tops of the trees before bursting literally like a firework, creating an electric net that connected with the charged bit on the ground.

The tradesmen below stopped and paused for a second as they saw nothing but a flash of light. They waited to see if another would happen, akin to a storm moving in, but when none came, they went back to work.

With a satisfied smile on his face, Touya relaxed his arms and straightened up. As he eased his legs back to a normal standing position, he clapped his hands together as if there were dirt on them he was knocking off. “Not too bad. Level One felt pretty easy to cast.”

“Slowest cast time, but longest lasting.” Basil nodded in agreement. “You think it'll hold back wolves?”

“It should.” was Touya's response as he turned back to face Basil. The blond made a sound as if he saw something on Touya's face and immediately started rummaging in his sack again. Curious, Touya took a step toward him. Before he could get too close, Basil stopped him with his palm against his chest. “What?”

“You're still releasing magic energy.” Basil said without looking up to him. He pulled out a small jar and pulled the cork off it. “Better save it.” Touya held still as Basil held the jar up to his right eye. The electricity that was faintly zapping around seemed to know the jar was there and flocked into it. Once Touya's eye stopped glowing, Basil removed the jar and corked it.

“How many of those do we have now?”

“That's the third.” Basil carefully tucked the jar back into his bag. “It's a good thing Queen suggested we bring the jars.”

“Why?” Touya folded his hands up behind his head. “It's not like we're going to run into walking skeletons in the ruins.”

Basil shook his head at him while smiling. “If that was her worry, she wouldn't be sending an electric eel and an eagle.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Touya looked away disinterested back toward the boulders. “Well, that was boring.”

“You're just annoyed because you had to do that after fighting that living gelatin monster this morning.”

“Wouldn't have had to if you hadn't gone,” Touya changed his voice to a high-pitched irritating one, “Oh lookie, Touya, baby, there's some gelatin! That's perfect for channeling your lightning when we get to the ruins! We can use it instead of a torch. Won't that be cool?~”

“You say that jokingly, but I know you had fun kicking it's butt.” Basil snickered as he tied off his pouch and started into the thick brush away from the boulders. “Look on the bright side.”

“We're walking into a dark forest. How is that bright?” Touya asked as he followed, not dropping his arms from behind his head.

“We're that much higher to the ruins.” Basil pointed into the dim wood. Just ahead of them they could make out the clear white cobblestone of the path, only higher on the mountain.

“Maybe some boars will attack...” Touya muttered hopefully as he felt like the darkness of night was settling in around them. “Wait a minute.” He cried indignantly after his companion. “You aren't an eagle! You're a damn finch!”

“Eagle!”

“Finch!”

“Can a finch make winds like me? No, they can't!”

“You are a teeny tiny bird and I'm an awesome force of nature!”

“You're a weirdo. A jellyfish!”

“Eel!”

“Jellyfish!”

“Finch!”

The two continued bickering as they went.


	5. Rain wastes time 1

“So, jellyfish,” Basil started calmly. “Can you make a barrier to shield us from the rain?” Touya smiled at him from several paces ahead on the cobblestone road. He spun around on his toe playfully with a laugh. “I'm serious. We're soaked!”

“Ah, don't blame the rain, Basil.” Touya chided as he took a few skips forward. They were coming up on a flat part of the path before it took another acute turn to head farther up the mountain in the form of long wide steps. “You're the one who stepped in that puddle.”

“You didn't warn me it was there after you stepped in it!” Basil swung his arm at him but missed.

“Hey, hey, don't be using Queenie's magic so loosely!” Touya scolded playfully. He stopped, put one hand on his hip and wagged the other in Basil's face. As he mocked the blond's lecturing tone he kept a straight face, “We weren't sent here to play around.”

Basil glared at him but didn't move for a moment. It lasted so long that Touya uneasily relaxed his hand from the blond's face. One second, two seconds, five... ten. Nervous, Touya scrambled up onto the stairs before looking back at his companion. Just as he got away, a small gust of wind surrounded Basil in the form of a miniature tornado that shot up from his feet high into the sky above them. It effectively dried his wet hair, and kept rain from falling on him for a moment; in turn all of the droplets that would've hit him, went flying out in random directions with much of their aim seeming to be for Touya.

“I told you. I don't use Queenie's power.” he said in a very dark tone that sounded more like he was hurt than angry.

“I don't either–” Touya shrugged.

“You use it every day to control your power!” Basil shouted. After his outburst he crossed his arms and turned away from him. “It doesn't matter if you were born with the gift of nature if you use the Queen's magic to keep it in check.”

Scoffing with a smile to lighten the situation, Touya opened his arms wide and beckoned Basil to come up and get a hug. Basil glared at him without moving, and made a point of sharply turning his head away in a pout to show his firm rejection of this idea. “You know why I have to, Basil.” Touya spoke softly, lowering his arms back down.

“Yeah.” was the soft agreement. “Too bad the incantation means one of your eyes will be forever green.”

“Don't like it?”

“Feels like she's always spying on what you do.”

Touya turned and started walking the long flat part to the next step. “Someone like me doesn't get a better penance.”


	6. Rain wastes time 2

“Touya...” Basil mumbled sadly as he turned to follow. He knew better than to argue with him when he was like this. He'd just laugh and disagree and continue being a mopey teenager. “It's getting worse.” He decided to talk about how the rain wasn't letting up as they continued up their ascent. “Should we see if some of those trees can provide cover?”

“What? Stop and sit it out?” Touya turned to look back at him while continuing walking forward, now backwards. “Aren't you excited to see the ruins? My blood's practically electrified – I can't just sit around waiting for the rain to stop.”

“But as we get higher the winds will pick up too.” Basil tried to argue.

“You can take care of that can't yoouuuuu?” Touya yelped as his ankle hit the edge of the next step and he fell back until his butt hit the stone. It was so sudden that Basil started laughing out of reflex. “Ow!” Touya cursed as he rolled over to his hands and knees before getting up. “Stupid stairs – whatever gave them the idea to stop with the ramp?”

“It's steeper here.” Basil answered through giggles.

“Whatever.” Touya stood up, clapping his hands together. He took a half-step back to glare at the step, pointed his right hand at where he tripped and clicked his tongue. As soon as he did, a shot of electricity, although small, zapped from the tip of his finger in a zigzag right down to the spot where he'd tripped and left a little black fried mark.

“Oh, come now, don't take your anger out on the path.” Basil chuckled as he stepped past him.

Touya shrugged as he followed. “Remind me to eat the eclair when we get to the top.”

“No way. Then you'll just fry the whole path!”

“Darn. You saw through my evil plot.” Touya snapped his fingers, his skin wet and causing them to slip faster than he'd intended and his middle finger's nail ended up stabbing his ring finger's knuckle. He yelped again, causing Basil to stop and turn. “Ow, ow, ow, stupid rain!”

With a groan, Basil rolled his eyes. “I did say to wait it out for a reason.”

“No! I'm not letting it win!” Touya strode past him, gripping his knuckle tenderly.

“You're just being stubborn.”


	7. Rain wastes time 3

After a few more minutes of silence, Basil pointed ahead at the next curve in the path before it turned once more to continue up. “Let's rest when we get there.”

“Dun wanna.” Touya pouted.

Basil shook his head. “Then you'll just have to go on alone. I'll sit down and rest. With all of the food.” Touya eyed him carefully as they continued walking, their pace slowing down equally to meet each other's line of sight. “You'll have to carry me up.”

Touya sighed after a second. “You win. Fine. We'll rest.”

It took them several more minutes of walking to reach the edge. While Touya looked around at where they had decided to rest, Basil was pulling out two small squares of fabric from his pouch. He found a bench underneath some thick branches and pointed it out to Basil, who promptly handed him one of the squares to unfold. Like a magic trick of folds, the two small squares of fabric unfolded from the original size of a macaroon to be two large blankets made of soft wool enough to wrap around their body from their shoulders to just below their knees. Basil wrapped himself up like a burrito first and sat down on the bench. Touya eyed the bench carefully to see if there was any spot that wasn't covered in water. Not finding one, he settled for sitting down next to Basil so their bodies touched.

The two sat in silence, one watching rain fall from above them down in front of them, and the other watching if there were any little bugs walking around them.

“Does it hurt?” Basil asked quietly. “Having your powers forcefully repressed?”

“Of course. That's why I need the food to break through the barrier she put on me.”

Basil's eyes fell to his toes, uneasily scratching them against the ground. “Even if you casted Wall right now to shield us, it would require food?”

“Something that's a power outside nature, and outside my own body.” Touya replied.

“I don't think I'd like it. Being limited.”

“You're too emotional. It's all from your emotions and that's why yours is weaker and stronger than mine.”

“Stronger?” Basil looked up to him.

Touya chuckled, looking down from watching the water puddle across the leaves above them. “Fire, electric fires, or whatever else I can zap, you'd be able to stop it.”

“But, Touya.” Basil paused. “Isn't your power more than just electricity?”

Without speaking, Touya reached his left hand out of the woolen blanket and pointed to Basil's nose. The soft rain that was falling around them paused briefly. It was too quick for Basil to notice. So, with a bit more force, being sure to use just a small amount of energy, Touya focused his energy on Basil's nose. The water in the air right above his nose collected and created a tiny droplet that immediately fell onto the blond's nose. Basil blinked in surprise, a bit of the splash flying up to his eyelashes.

“Whoa. What?” Basil lifted his hand covered with the blanket to dry his nose right away. “Where'd that come from?”

“What?” Touya asked as cluelessly as he could.

“A big drop just landed on my nose all of a sudden.”

“Really?” Touya drew his hand back to his body to get it warm again.

“It was almost like you...” his words stopped. “Did... You?”

“Can't say.” Touya winked at him.


	8. Rain wastes time 4

After resting for twenty minutes, the two got up and continued up the pathway. They folded their woolen blankets back up into the teeny squares and Basil tucked them away. By nightfall the rain was holding pretty steady and they had reached high enough that they could tell they were walking along a pathway that was handcarved stone – different from the regular path. This stone was laid out in a smooth professional pattern like it'd be lining a temple, or an expensive city cause way. It was lined on each side with two stones to give it a lip, and it was almost entirely uninterrupted by weeds breaking through the stones.

“Whoa. How do you think they managed it?”

“Lots of slaves?” Basil asked.

Touya smacked the blond's shoulder with his fist. “No, idiot. How did they manage anti-weed paths?”

“Magic?”

“Boring!” Touya croaked. “That's just too easy then.”

“And yet we don't do it.”

After a moment, Touya stopped. “Hey, can't you make an umbrella out of your wind powers?”

“Yeah, but I'm not going to.”

“Why?”

Basil stopped, several feet ahead of him now. He groaned, turning around to look at the one with two different colored eyes with a look of obvious historical disgust and disapproval of this conversation happening before. “Because when I did, we ended up being launched into the sky in a tempest and blown out to sea.”

“Aw, but that could launch us right up to the ruins.”

“We're almost there. Just keep walking, lazy jellyfish.” Basil shook his head and pointed up the path at some stairs farther up to their left.

As they went the last bit of distance in silence, Touya watched Basil's back quietly, recalling when they had been hurtled up into the sky. “Wonder if next time we can make a waterspout.” he mumbled to himself as he tried to think of the countless destructive ways their powers could combine.


	9. Waste leads to Darkness 1

As the two peeked their heads through the bushes they could hear the familiar sounds of voices chattering about. It didn't sound like a lot of people, but enough that they were concerned. Sure enough just through the branches they spotted two royal guards standing where the stone pathway led up several steps and disappeared behind a thick wall of rubble and the wall it had come from. The ruins were just beyond this point. From behind the guards they could hear the systematic sound of equipment that belonged to researches that shouldn't be there yet.

Basil groaned quietly, looking to Touya. “Well we can't get in this way. Should we go back and tell the Queen?”

“No way. If we came all this way only to be turned away at the prospect of even crossing the gate, she'd tan our hides.” Touya shook his head then batted his hand at Basil dismissively. “Let's just go ahead on in this way. It'll be easier if they know we're there.”

“But they won't let you in.”

“You mean you, but they'll have to.” Touya smirked at him. “You go up first.”

“What? No! I don't want to! You!”

“If I go up first then there's no way they'll let you through.” Touya pointed out rather astutely. It left the blond with a frown on his face. The two stared at each other not talking for a few seconds. “It'll be fine.”

“I don't know about that.” Basil muttered as he straightened up. “Don't leave me hanging.”

“Never.” Touya gestured with his right hand a symbol of good luck and that's all Basil had to go on.

He took the frown off his face by recomposing his entire posture, then he walked back behind them to the pathway and started around the bushes and trees so he could approach the ruins without looking like he had snuck his way ahead to see what it was like. It was still raining, and he and everyone of the royal guards showed it by their wet clothes, but the air as he approached the ruins felt warmer so it oddly wasn't as uncomfortable.


	10. Waste leads to Darkness 2

The guards immediately held up their hands, one put his free hand on the handle of his sword at his hip, as Basil approached them. “Stop! Go back!” Barked the other guard.

Basil stopped a few feet from them, but close enough to speak comfortably. “Hello! I was going to look over these ruins. I won't bother anyway.”

“This area is off-limits to civilians.” barked the guard with the sword. He waved his arm in a giant dramatic fashion to shoo the blond away. “It's not safe here.”

“Off-limits?” Basil raised a brow. “I saw no sign. And I can hear people inside! I just want to look around!”

Touya was watching from behind a bush, kneeling down. He'd repositioned himself so that if he were to stand up, it'd look like he'd come down the same path as Basil to approach the royal guards. He inhaled a shallow breath and fluffed up his hair.

“It's not safe!”

“Basil!” Touya called. He was walking down the path when the guards looked up, and then he stopped next to the blond. “I thought I said it was okay to go in without me? You didn't need to wait.”

Surprised at this somewhat lie, and Touya's calm way of talking, Basil pointed rudely at the royal guards. “I wasn't going to wait for you but these two won't let me in.”

“Why not?” Touya asked, looking up to the guards.

The pair looked like they were suddenly verious nervous, their posture growing stiff at the sight of Touya. “It... It isn't... safe.” said one.

“We cannot guarantee your safety.” said the other.

Touya scoffed with a smile. “Oh well we aren't needing that. We can take care of ourselves.”

“Yes, but.” The guard with the sword protested, looking from Touya's confident posture to Basil's rather ordinary stance. He obviously was second-guessing Basil's ability to keep himself safe. “It's a matter of safety.”

“Did my companion here say anything about wanting an escort, or somehow making you think that we want safety while exploring?” Touya asked, still with that casual tone. It was like he was ordering a coffee at a café. He looked to Basil with a smile, knowing what the answer would be.

“No.” Basil answered.

“No...” the guards echoed almost at the same time.

“Then I see no issue.” Touya looked back to the guards. “We are explorers. And we were on our way to explore these ruins. We haven't asked for safety, and you say you can't guarantee it. So we're all on the same page?”

“Yes but should you get hurt.” The guard without the sword made sure to protest once more, putting a stress on addressing Touya with his sentence.

“Then my companion will assist me.” Touya patted Basil's shoulder. “Would you let us in please?” As he widened his smile, the purple of his eye flickered in a way that was both reassuring and threatening to the guards, of his strength.

Hesitantly the two royal guards exchanged looks, but they nodded and parted to clear the path for the two young men.

“Fantastic!” Touya crowed as he strode past them. Basil followed quietly.

The two walked without speaking to the other, pretending to look up and around like tourists at the ruins. They spotted what they had heard – over fifteen researchers scattered around drawing the symbols carved on the stone walls of the open-air ruins courtyard, drawing a map of the area they were in, and a pair that looked like they were planning a descent down into one of the dark passages that was framed by a temple door, though it lay broken on the ground.

Touya elbowed Basil's arm lightly. “C'mon, let's get out of here.” He took a sharp left turn that to someone watching him suspected he had just spotted something the researchers had already gone over. The blond followed him in a natural step.

Touya led them two a set of pillars that were holding up a crumbling roof that looked sturdy enough unless another earthquake happened. He went underneath it, looking around at the walls while squatting, moving kind of like a penguin. “Here.” He grinned at Basil, then slipped feet-first into a small triangle shaped hole that was a piece of broken stone wall. He immediately vanished into darkness. Basil took a quick peek over his shoulders to see if anyone had noticed. When he was certain that everyone was all in their own investigative worlds, he slipped in after Touya into the glum, a blast of strikingly cold air hitting him as he passed into the shadows.


	11. Waste leads to Darkness 3

Coughing through the dust, Basil clapped his sides to brush himself off from the dirt and dust. “You know, next time you decide to go into a hole in the wall, Imma just let you go alone.”

“Aw, don't be like that.” Touya snickered as he rolled out from underneath Basil's legs before he was stepped on in the dark. “You can just blow all this dust off.”

“I can't just 'blow' it all off at will, or I would've blown those guards away, too.” He shook his head, crossing his arms. “I can't see a-thing.” He complained. “Can't you make us a light?”

“No, no, no. Now that'd be really bad.” Touya immediately responded as if Basil asked him to blow up the entire ruins and bring the ceiling crashing down on them. “Don't you have a lil flare or something in the pouch?”

“Wouldn't that be just as bad.” Basil commented as he opened his bag and began to dig in the dark. He was stuck relying on just feeling for shapes and guessing what they were. “I might have...something.” He mumbled.

“Not too cold in here.” Touya commented as Basil dug around. “Thought it'd be much colder since it felt like we fell a ways.”

“If we're stuck or lost, I blame you. Ah,” Basil yipped as he grabbed something. “This should do.”

As soon as he pulled it out of his bag, the area immediately around them by about ten feet was lit up by a gentle golden light. Touya cheered, then looked to see what Basil had found. In his hand was a small jar not bigger than his hand that had a small sparkling piece of yellow rock inside it glistening.

“A fairy? A star?”

“Piece of a star,” Basil commented like he was a know-it-all wisebutt. “I brought it since eating it will bring you back.”

“Back from?”

“Death. And you call me the idiot.”

“Yeah, yeah. Nice to see it can light up the area though.” Touya reached for the jar and instinctively Basil tucked the light back against his stomach, covering it with both hands. The action caused the room to go dim. “Hey! I can't see where I'm going if I don't have it.”

“Then sucks to be you.” Basil retorted. “I'm leading us.” As Touya whined, Basil stepped around him to get a good look at where they had fallen. It looked like a hallway with several doors on either side, but overall the area was stone, dusty and dirty, and dark. “There aren't any windows? Where did we fall from?”

“Up there.” Touya pointed and the two looked up. Curious, Basil lifted his hand with the bottle of light to see if they could see the ceiling. It was too high up to spot.

“Now where to?” came the worry.

Touya crossed his arms and shut his eyes. “What did she say? Something about it'll come to you? Follow your gut?”


	12. Waste leads to Darkness 4

Several minutes passed before Basil sighed. “Well. Anything?”

“This might be one of those things that take time..?” Touya pondered, crossing his arms. “Got any food to help?”

“What?” Basil tilted his head. “Food to help heighten instinctual sense of direction?”

“Yeah, like rock sugar or something.”

“Somehow I doubt rock sugar can help your sense of direction,” Basil chuckled. Then he paused, lifting the jar up to his shoulder and back to hip as he thought harder. “Sense of direction... Too bad we don't have any savory breads. That'd be perfect.”

“Yuck.”

Basil's eyes darted to the other. “Why do you think rock sugar would help?”

“Well, there's rock all around us.”

“Seems like stupid logic.”

“What's your idea then?”

“Hmm,” Basil shut his eyes. “Perhaps she didn't mean follow your heart? Maybe she meant mine?”

“That's stupid.”

Basil shook his head, and scoffed. He was quiet a moment, then opened his mouth to say something. “Hear that?”

Touya took a step closer to the blond, looking around them slowly to see if he could notice something unique. “No?”

“It's wind.” Basil answered, opening his eyes. He took a few steps past Touya into the dark, casting a shadow on him. “Maybe it's the way out.” A pause, then he put his hand on his hip. “Now how do you follow wind?”

“Find the direction maybe? I'm not a sailor.”

“Sailing. Perfect!” Basil turned his head to cheer on Touya for a brief moment, then he turned back around to the dark. He opened his mouth and smoothly ran his index finger along the middle of his tongue to wet it, then held the finger out away from his body. He moved his entire hand a bit right, then a bit left. Touya crossed his arms, watching him with a perplexed face that showed he was annoyed that the blond could do a trick that he couldn't. Suddenly, Basil turned to Touya with a toothy grin that looked more haunting than it should in this dim light. “Found it!”


	13. Blowing past fate 1

“Snuffing out the light is not something everyone's equipped to do.”

Touya stood high above Basil on a platform in the darkness of the ruins. Around them was nothing but the cold stone, cooled by years of being in the darkness and hidden. His purple eye glowed with power, flowing his movements of his head back and forth as he tilted it to see what Basil's stunned reaction would be to his statement. There was a wry smile on his face, standing in a smug pose that beget someone of entitled royalty. He didn't seem himself.

Basil gawked up at him. Things had been fine. They'd been walking for what felt like hours, Touya sure they were lost in the ruins, and Basil certain he was following a logical path by following the wind he could hear. Touya was arguing with him that this wasn't the kind of adventure he was excited about – not one he couldn't see, that is. Just as Basil had been about to retort something sarcastic in the dim light of their little star lantern the ceiling had broken above them. The sound of the royal guards shouting indistinctly and researchers yelping echoed down to them as dust piled up around them. The star flickered out it seemed as the dust grew too thick around them. Touya yelped, reaching out his hand to grab Basil's just as the light went out.

Upon the clearing of the air, forced along to speed up by Basil coughing and waving his hand back and forth – sharp wind cutting through the dust as unforgiving tornadoes spun to his left and right, following the flickering of his wrist; the star flickered back to life and lit up the small area Basil was standing in, rubble all around him.

It was then that he looked up and saw Touya standing with light emitting from his purple eye. As the young man turned around to face the blond, looking down on him from on-high his perch, the orange of his other eye seemed to grow weak – a gem of purple flames attempting to flicker to life beneath a powerful incantation placed upon him years ago by the Queen.

“What are you talking about, Touya?” Basil asked rudely. “What light?”

“Her light shines too brightly,” Touya commented, his hand reaching up to press against his orange eye. “She's blinded me. Sealed my powers.” His smile widened, and the star in the jar held in Basil's hands flickered uneasily, threatening to puff out. “How greedy.”

“You said it yourself – you did something that can't be forgiven!” Basil shouted up to him. “Now get down here and let us carry on. We've got a job to do.”

“Boring.” Touya shook his head. “Why don't I just leave you down here in the darkness?” He pressed his fingers against his eye as if to pluck it out. The action caused lightning to spurt from his orange eye, snaking around him in an unnatural fashion. “Her power is overrated.” He paused. “I hold power eternal.”

A blast of wind shoved him backward as a cone shot from Basil's outstretched hand. Touya fell backwards into the stone and out of sight from the angle Basil was at far below him.

“If you could be anymore of an idiot, I'd stop feeding you.” Basil commented, still with a rude tone. He pet the jar in his hands, the light steadily growing brighter to light the room better. He saw to the left in front of him through the rubble, some broken stone stairs that were intact enough he could climb up to where Touya had fallen.


	14. Blowing past fate 2

As Basil climbed the stones, he heard Touya starting to groan as he woke up, and then a snide laugh. “You hit hard! Commendable!” The laughter died down as Basil reached the platform Touya was laying down on.

“You idiot. What's wrong? You aren't acting like yourself.” Basil shook his head as he stood over Touya. The light from the jar was showing that now he was covered in dust and bits of dirt from the rubble falling from the ceiling, and from the blast of wind Basil just smacked him in the face with.

“No?” He chuckled dryly then opened his eyes. Basil saw that his orange eye, the incantation sealing his powers was still there. “It's not like I was possessed and a different person. I'm just sick of doing whatever that stupid lady wants.”

“What'd you mean before – are you really more powerful than the queen?”

Touya sat up, brushed himself off a bit, then stood up. “Think it over, Bas. If I wasn't, would she seal my powers?” No response came from the blond as he thought over the question. “That said, she had to seal my powers because she wasn't strong enough to kill me.”

“What were you able to do before?”

“Freedom.” Touya lifted his hands out in front of him. An arc of lightning lit up the area around them as it darted from his right hand to his left and then back. “Can't say I was a good boy. I had no, let's call it a moral compass. And I still don't believe there's one.”

“She's sending you off on adventures so you get one?”

“Maybe.” He shrugged his shoulders, then slumped his arms down. He refused to make eye-contact with Basil now. “I wasn't operating in the rules of right and wrong. I was operating under what is kind and what is cruel.”

“Like?”

Suddenly an uneasy yelp came out of Basil as Touya shoved him toward the edge of the platform. He kept a grip on the center of Basil's shirt collar just below his chin, but the blond's balance was knocked off completely that if Touya were to release him, he'd fall backwards and down a fair distance to the rocks below.

“Like this. I have a choice now.” Touya commented, his purple eye glimmered briefly before going dark. “I can let you go, or I can not. Ignore what's right and wrong, and ignore thoughts of evil. Which is it?”

“Wh-what?” Basil blabbered out. He was stuck in such a way that he couldn't easily move his arms to swing at Touya's. If he did, he'd likely be released and fall.

“Darkness, and her bright light that shimmers in the darkness; is her light the right path, or the right light?” Touya asked cooly. Then, he released Basil.

Yelping again as he fell, Basil swung his arms about frantically, wind coming out in all directions to stabilize him as he fell. He managed to spin himself so he landed on his knees and elbows, but it still was a fall. The wind he summoned made the dust fly up around him once more, clouding his sight and the little jar of light faded. He gasped for air to get his senses back, and immediately started coughing from the dust. Basil waved his arms about in a similar manner to when the rocks had fallen to clear the dust from his view. Once more the light from the jar flickered alive.

As Basil turned his head up to look at Touya once more smugly looking down on him, he saw that this time, Touya wasn't smiling.

“Is what I did just now wrong?”

“You dropped me!” Basil shouted at him rather indignantly.

Touya stopped himself from chuckling. “But what I did – I allowed you to regain your senses before dropping you. I knew you wouldn't be hurt once I did let go. So, is what I did cruel or kind?”

“Well it definitely wasn't kind!” Basil barked as he stood up, brushing himself off of the dust. “Get down here so I can show you what kindness to repay you with!”

Touya waved his hands up in surrender. “All right, all right. I'm just saying, think it over. Years of growing up with kind or cruel as your mentality, not right and wrong, it means that you're free. What I did – dropping you – wasn't cruel.”

“The lard it wasn't.”

“I knew you wouldn't get hurt.” Touya explained as he turned and started toward the crumbling stairs. As he climbed down and closer to Basil, he didn't need to shout to speak to him anymore. “So I wasn't cruel. If I had just dropped you as soon as I shoved you onto that ledge, then that'd be cruel.”

“Blah blah blah,” Basil gestured with his hand a mocking symbol of talking. “All I'm hearing is that you're a confused coward who just dropped me off a ledge as part of some stupid game cause you're bored.”

“I'm so bored!” Touya shouted, emphasis on the so. He slumped his shoulders forward to make his statement more dramatic. “I can't make lightning storms, I can't blast something and make it erupt into flames, I can't even defib someone if I needed to.”

“That's what the food is for.”

“What?”

Basil shook his head. “What does eating the food do for you? It increases your power.”

“Yeah, well, enough that I can break through the incantation's limitations without actually breaking it.”

“So without the food, you're at, what would you say?” Basil asked. When Touya straightened up to look at him, confused, Basil elaborated. “How much power do you have?”

“Dunno. Feels like maybe ten percent.” Touya opened his palm and made a small zap of electricity zip between his fingers. “It's so weak.”

“And at full power?”

“Zap, bam, boom,” Touya grinned at him right away.

“Well, now that you're all done whining, shall we get back to exploring the ruins?”

“Ugh,” Touya groaned right away. “Nothing phases you, does it?”

“I knew you were limited and a prisoner of some sort.” Basil exhaled with a proud puff to his chest. “So it's my job to take you where the queen says to, so you can get that moral compass.”

“Bah,” Touya looked away. “Boring goal. Can't it be something cool like save the planet?”

“No.” Basil walked past him. “Anyway, it's this way.”

“What is?”

“The wind.” Basil turned to look back at him. “You can stay here in the dark by yourself. Or come follow me.”

“I swear, if this whole adventure in the ruins turns out to be Queenie sitting on some throne at the end of it dressed in some sparkly star gown, Imma zap her right there.”


	15. Blowing past fate 3

The two walked quietly for what felt like an hour. Every now and then, Basil would stop and hold up his right hand in front of him, while he used his left to cover his ear. He'd stand still for a moment, listening to tell which direction the wind was blowing from. It frustrated Touya each time.

Currently the two were quietly bickering about what Basil was doing. Touya was adamant they're lost.

“If we just have to follow our gut, then this is the easiest way.”

“To what? To where?” Touya barked. “For all we know, you're getting us more and more lost! This is stupid. Just give me some food and I can use the lightning to zip us out of here.”

“Oh, really?” Basil crossed one arm across his chest, while holding out the jar with of light with his left out. “How do you figure?”

“Lightning goes up and down strictly. It can be a guide.” Touya answered with a wave of his hand confidently.

“Well, stupid, of course we want to go one of those two ways, but safely and through a passage we can actually walk – you can't do that.”

Irritated at how logical this sounded, Touya crossed his arms. “This is stupid. I thought exploring ruins would be fun.”

Basil sighed after a moment. “Isn't it?” Touya looked at him. “I mean, whether we're lost or not, isn't it fun to be someplace we don't know?”

“Not when you can't see anything.” A chuckle came out of Basil. “Hey. I'm serious. It's pitch black down here.”

“Then just fix that. Here, one sec.” Basil laughed again. He handed Touya the jar and began to rummage through his sack. “This should work.” He pulled out a wad of parchment paper and unwrapped the treat inside.

Touya made a sarcastic groan as they exchanged the food for the light. “If this is that spinach one, Imma smack you.”

“It shouldn't be.”

Touya took a bite. It was a flakey pastry full of buttery layers, a sharp taste of sugar and cinnamon cut through, followed by a sticky goop that tasted like butterscotch. “Baklava!” Touya practically sang, tossing the rest of it into his mouth.

“Happy now?”

“Mm-hmm!” Touya smiled at him as he chewed. After a moment to finish eating, Touya clapped his hands together. “All right, light on the menu comin' up!” He grinned as he recited the incantation. “Borrowing from the Queen, illuminate the rooms we step foot into.” A bolt of lightning shot from his left to his right excitedly. “Illuminate: Flash, level one!”

A solid arc of lightning zipped between his hands, crackled and spewed shards of lightning off that didn't fall to the ground. A second of this lasted before the lightning zipped out of his hand and disintegrated into nothing but shards that floated around him and Basil. The two were wrapped in a steely blue light from the lightning, shards floating around them like snow frozen in time. The density of the light was thicker around Touya than Basil, but overall it circled each in a wide radius enough for the two to make out the stone room they were standing in.


	16. Blowing past fate 4

“Heh,” Basil chuckled. “Neat trick.”

“Right?” Touya chirped at him excitedly.

The two looked about their surroundings before sighing disappointedly. Both had been expecting to see something cool – a giant statue, super tall ceilings, a stained glass window that spelled their fate, just something besides plain ol' rock and stone.

“Well,” Basil sighed louder. “Let's keep going.” He pointed left. “Looks like it's that way.”

“Yeah, more boring and the same boring walls and the boring stone and the boring darkness!” Touya grumbled as he followed while slouching.

The next series of rooms were indeed boring. Hallways, smaller rooms, larger rooms, rooms that seemed to be dead-ends. Finally, Basil held up his hand as they step foot into a huge room. It's ceiling was tall and impressive causing the two to gape with open mouths as the little sparks of lightning following Touya like a shadow spread forward into the room to light up the area. High above them was a chandelier made of four women made of stone each pointing a different direction with their outstretched arms as if they were a compass.

“Ya think maybe this place used to be above ground?” Basil asked nervously.

“And the earthquake sent it down here?”

“Or like, it was sealed?” Basil looked around cautiously. “Something about this place feels off.”

A rumble shook the place as another earthquake happened. Touya cursed Basil for bringing it up but the two grabbed hands all the same in case they were separated again like before. After falling to their knees, the rumbling grew louder and dust fell from above. The structure remained the same however. No crumbling walls, or stone pillars collapsing on them.

“Whew,” Touya cheered as he stood up. “Seems this place at least was made sound. Not a single rock in the wall out of joint.”

“Yeah.” Basil brushed his knees off as he stood up. Looking around, the lightning sparkle snowflakes had stayed still during the shaking. “I still...have this sinking feeling.” He said before he started to dig through his bag. “I think you should eat something.”

“How come you never eat anything?”

“I thought you knew?” Basil asked as he pulled out the wrapped eclair. “The boosting effect of the food doesn't work on my magic.”

“It doesn't?” Touya took the treat, tilting his head to the side.

“Nope.” The blond shook his head and closed his bag. “I mean, if it does, it probably only works if my powers get really out of whack and create like, a hurricane force.”

“That... sounds cool...?” was the question as Touya thought over being smacked in the gut by a sharp burst of wind that strong from an emotionally unstable companion. He decided not to comment on it and instead took a bite of the eclair. “I dun wanna eat alone. Have a bite.”

As Touya handed Basil back the eclair, another quake rocked the room. Just as Basil had a grip on the pastry, the ground crumbled just to the side of him.

“Behind you!” Touya barked.

Stupidly, Basil hopped backwards as if he thought he could jump over whatever it was.

He was wrong.

Instead of jumping over the hole, he fell straight into it with a yelp.


	17. Is this..? 1

“Basil!” Touya shouted down into the darkness. It was pitch black. He couldn't even see the light from the jar Basil had been holding when he fell. He hunched over to look through the hole, then made a swift movement of his arm to point down into the darkness. “Down!” He ordered curtly. Instantly over half of the floating lightning sparks zoomed past him and into the dark, spreading out like ink dropped into a water tank and illuminated the area. It left him in a dim room, but that wasn't his concern. Down below by a fair distance he could make out Basil laying on his side in a pile of the rubble. “Basil!” He called again. “Are you okay?”

“Ow.” came the response. He heard as Basil shifted and groaned onto his side, but didn't stand. “My ankle hurts and I think my hand's bleeding.”

“Can you get up?”

“Uhm,” Basil tested his leg by seeing if he could move it. “I don't think so.” Then he chuckled, “That was exciting.”

“Can you see anything?”

Touya watched as Basil looked left, then right, then behind him and then back in front of him. He looked like he was digging something from his hand. “Looks like some stairs to my left, and a big ornate door over to my right.” He paused and made a hurt sound in his throat. “I think I've got glass in my hand.”

“Stay put!” Touya ordered. “I'll find those stairs and come down to you!”

“What? No! Touya! Stay!” Basil looked up to him, barking his orders frantically before Touya could move. “We don't even know where my stairs go to, or from.”

“You want me to jump down there? I'm not leaving you!”

“Calm down.” Basil waved his not-bleeding hand up at Touya in a big swoop motion. “I've got a rope in my bag.”

“What's good is that?!”

“You can pull me up.”

“You're like, way, below me!”

Basil shook his head while he slung his bag off his shoulder and began to dig through it with one hand. “I'll need help bandaging my hand.” He explained. “I can do it myself but it'll take a few minutes.”

“I can wait... I guess.” Touya sighed, relaxing his back. He pointed with his right hand again, “Down...” and more of the lights swept past him and down to Basil. This group clustered around him to offer light.

“Uh... thanks.” Basil commented as he dug out some cotton bandages and some white little squares of fabric meant to put on wounds. “I dropped that light... so you'd better not get fatally wounded now.”

“Says the guy who's bleeding.” Touya shouted down, but in a tone that sounded like a grumble.

“It's just my hand.” Basil retorted.

The two bickered for a moment more while Basil dressed his wound. Once he had the bandage wrapped as best he could, yanking it tight with his teeth while using his other hand to pull the other bandage the other way, he successfully tied a knot. After that was done, he pulled out the rope, dropped it on his lap, then pulled his bag back onto his back.

“Okay, Touya, you'll have to be careful.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Basil eased the rope into a swing like shape with two loops meeting in the center end of the rope. He yanked both loops under his legs. He left one loop at his middle thigh, and pulled the other to his waist. He adjusted the knot to make sure the loops didn't get any larger, then wrapped the rope around his good hand twice, once at the elbow and once at the palm.

“You ready?”

“What's happening?” Touya asked.

“You just have to catch it.” Basil told him.

Touya immediately caught on. He took a bite of the eclair, then shoved the pastry into his shirt by going through the hole at his neck. He clapped his hands together and held them over the hole. “Just count to three.”

The blond nodded. “One, two, three,” and on the silent count of four, a blast of unstable wind carried the rope high, high, high above him. And then it fell flat.

It caused Touya to burst out laughing. “Maybe,” he heaved, “you should put a weight on it.”

Basil pursed his lips as he pulled the rope back to himself. “A weight, a weight.” He was sure nothing he had was heavy enough to sustain it, and still be light enough to go up. “We'll just have to try again.”

“Rememeber, aim for my idiot face.”

“That won't be difficult.”


	18. Is this..? 2

“Just don't aim for my eye, okay?” Touya asked with a chuckle.

Basil mimicked Touya's chuckle playfully as he pulled the rope back to himself. He looked up to the other, spotting the dim hole in the ceiling. “One, two, three,” Basil count out once more. On the fourth count, he threw the rope into the air, then used his good hand to thrust with open-palm a blast of wind straight up to Touya.

The second blast of wind shot right up to Touya so hard and quickly that the rope fluttered right out of it and fell to the ground, while the blast rocketed right into Touya's face, sending him backward and out of sight. A crashing sound was heard far above Basil, and the wind quieted down.


	19. Is this..? 3

“Ya dead?” Basil asked with a snicker as he pulled the rope back to him.

“...No.” Touya wheezed as he sat up. “I said not to aim for my face.”

“Sorry. I misunderstood.”

“Sure you did,” Touya shook his head as he crawled back over to the hole. He peeked down carefully to make sure that if the blond was planning another assault he could get away in time. To his delight, he spotted Basil was tying the rope around his magically enchanted bag, or bag that held magically enchanted items so everything could fit – either way, this one might work. “Giving it some weight?” he called down.

“Yeah. It should be easier to direct.” Basil paused. “Hopefully.”


	20. Is this..? 4

Once more, Basil did a count down. Starting with the bag held in his hands at his knees, tied with a secure knot to the rope, he pictured in his mind the bag flying up and hitting Touya in the mouth; it was the best way for him to imagine directing the wind in any particular direction, and this one being so far away, Touya was the most familiar thing here.

As soon as the wind circled around Basil's hips, it merged together like a tornado at his hands and lifted the bag up. Spiraling upwards, the bag shot, wobbling left and right with the rope trailing behind. Enchanted ropes are awesome by the way, since this rope never once tugged on Basil's body as if it suddenly had gotten too short. The bag shot up the hole, right past Touya's hands. Immediately he floundered around reaching for the bag as quickly as possible. When he got ahold of it, he yanked it close to his chest and heaved a breath to relax.

Basil opened his eyes carefully to see if the bag had begun to plummet back down toward him. When he saw the rope was still held up in the air, he looked up. “You caught it!”

“Third time's the charm.” Touya laughed down. He rolled over and looked down the hole. “Organize,” he ordered to the little flecks of light, spinning his right hand on his wrist like a little tornado. The lights flickered closer to Basil, then up the rope to illuminate it, and then back up to Touya. “Ready?”

“You'd better be careful.”

“We'll see.” Touya promised in a cheerful tone. He stood up, dropped the bag to his left hip, firmly in his left hand, and then with his right, he held the rope as it went behind his back. “O Queenie, dumbness happened, power to lift fallen moron. Erect, Wall level one.”

“I heard that!” Basil retorted as Touya cast his incantation.

Touya's purple eye glowed with power as lightning shot down around him and through the hole as if it were alive. He pulled on the rope with his right hand and began to lift Basil off the ground. As soon as the blond was a few inches up, the lightning that was ricocheting around merged underneath him to create a small hexagon shape just underneath his butt and began to help push.

It wasn't magical in that it was instantly lifting, Touya still had to do all of the work. Basil held tight to the rope with his hands to steady his back as the piece of wall beneath him was providing support and gently lifting. It was the sort that with each pull Touya'd do that would result in just two inches of lift, he'd get four or five thanks to the magic assisting from beneath Basil.


End file.
